Police investigate gunshots outside VP Biden’s Delaware home

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Law enforcement officials have boosted security at the Delaware home of Vice President Joe Biden after several gunshots rang out from a vehicle speeding by the property over the weekend. The vice president and his wife were not at their Wilmington home Saturday night when the shots were fired and there were no reports of injuries, authorities said Sunday.

During a search of the scene about a half-hour later, an individual in a vehicle tried to pass a police checkpoint. “As a result of the interaction with the officer, this individual was arrested for resisting arrest,” Donovan said. The Wilmington home is several hundred yards (meters) from the main road where the shots rang out, and authorities were searching outside the Biden residence and nearby houses to determine if any rounds hit anything. To contact the reporters on this story: David Lerman in Washington at dlerman1@bloomberg.net; Del Quentin Wilber in Washington at dwilber@bloomberg.net

Jacob Andrews said it appears the man was not involved in the shooting. “We heard the shots, four of them,” Cho said. “But next door there is always Secret Service so I wasn’t too worried. But it was really strange, to hear those kinds of shots next to the vice president’s house.” Biden’s neighbourhood includes stately stone-and-brick homes along a curving two-lane road that winds through rolling hills.

A small cottage, occupied by the Secret Service, sits on the property near a gate in front of the driveway that is blocked off by Secret Service vehicles and personnel. The shooting occurred just days after the Delaware National Guard increased security at its air base near Wilmington after several incidents in which vehicles approached the main gate before turning around. The National Guard base is part of a dual-use facility that includes New Castle Airport and which has been used by Biden when he travels to Delaware aboard Air Force Two. On Sunday afternoon, half a dozen sport utility vehicles were parked near the entrance of the Bidens’ property, providing a heavy security presence in the area. The Bidens spend many weekends at their Delaware home and while he served in the Senate, Biden frequently made a daily commute from Delaware to Washington by train.